Kings and Emperors

There was no real point to it, but, perhaps Napoleon thought it would be a walk-over. He did not take into account the Spanish people, nor did he take into account, or thought very little of, the British, who thought it possible to confront Napoleon on land, at last.

Everywhere that French armies went, once they had conquered a new province or country, they usually found quick-thinking collaborators who’d go along with them, and populations so weary of all those Thirty Years’ Wars and Hundred Years’ Wars that had plundered their lands and wealth that they would meekly succumb and try to make the best of things. Garrison duty was usually dull for the French, and they could quickly enlist, or conscript, young men into “allied” militaries who could police their own countries, and march to flesh out the already-massive French armies.

Nobody, anywhere in Europe, had ever cut a French throat in their sleep before, rebelled against them, ambushed their couriers and supply convoys, and armed themselves. General Castaños’s victory against French General Dupont at Bailén must have been an embarrassing shock to Napoleon’s pride in his armies. Unfortunately that victory made the Spanish think that they were invincible, which led many of their other Generals to lead Spanish armies to utter catastrophes, later on. The introduction of self-organised, self-armed bands of guerrillas, partidas who fought the “Little War” as they called it, was another shock; why, it was against the very rules of war, as they were understood in Europe, as chaotic as war on the frontiers against savage Red Indians! (Politically Correct types may blow it out yer arse.) Except from people like the bum-licking Godoy and the elite classes of Spain, the Anfrancesados, Napoleon and his men could not find very many collaborators, or recruits to serve alongside their own soldiers, either; the guerillas saw to that, making it very bloodily clear that co-operation or collusion with the invaders could be fatal. There were very few Quislings in Spain!

Napoleon’s expected quick conquest was turning into a steaming pile of merde. His trusted Marshal Junot had his can kicked at Roliça and Vimeiro, his other Marshals had retreated to the North of Spain, and his lacklustre brother, Joseph Bonaparte, now King of Spain, had to abandon Madrid and run for his life!

Enter the unfortunate General Sir John Moore. He didn’t ask, and no one told him, how desolate central Spain could be in the middle of Winter, or just how bad the roads were. Mr. John Hookham Frere took all the empty Spanish promises as Gospel, and eagerly passed them on to Moore; his only qualification for his important post at Madrid as a diplomat to the Supreme Junta was his friendship with Foreign Secretary George Ca

Actually, HM Government in London thought that invading Spain would be as easy as a stroll in Hyde Park … minus the rain! When Moore and Sir David Baird’s separated wings of the army realised at last that Napoleon had come to Spain himself with massive re-enforcements, they had no choice but to retreat to the coast and try to save the army, especially when Napoleon realised that he might be facing Sir John Moore, and got on a tear to be after him, thirsting for a victory over the British. He pushed his troops so hard, in the same horrid conditions as Moore and Baird experienced, that he was stranded for hours in a raging blizzard in a mountain pass, urging his men on, and earned a shout of “Convicts suffer worse than we do. Shoot him down, damn him!”

The glittering prize of destroying a British field army was too tempting. Napoleon abandoned any plans to continue marching South to polish off the Spanish rebellion, which left half the country free of him, which in the long run proved fatal. Then, after sitting before the city of Benavente for two days waiting for bridge repairs, and getting urgent despatches from Paris warning him of new problems with the Austrians, Napoleon turned the pursuit over to Marshal Soult and left Spain forever, never to return.

With the excellent help of the Royal Navy, Moore’s army was plucked from disaster, from Vigo and from Coru

By drawing Napoleon upon him, Moore saved Spain from utter disaster and collapse in the last month of 1808, and January of 1809. Historians reckon that the resistance, and the introduction of a new British army into Spain under the returned Sir Arthur Wellesley in the Spring of 1809, created a “Spanish Ulcer” that was the turning point in the long Napoleonic Wars, and cost France more in the long run than the disasters in Russia of 1812!

Even if the Spanish never could do much to aid that eventual victory; Wellesley, later Lord Wellington, never could quite trust them to do what they boasted.

*   *   *

Lewrie, and the crew of HMS Sapphire, are not to know this; as they sail away through stormy seas from Coru

Will Alan Lewrie get a few days of shore leave, long enough to catch up with doings in Anglesgreen, post those letters from Viscount Percy, or, if Percy fell in the fighting at Corruna, must he deliver them by hand to help Percy’s widow, Eudoxia, and his sister, Lydia, grieve?

Might he have time to really catch up with his son, Hugh, who seems to be doing quite well at his early naval career, or discover what’s up with his other son, Sewallis, and all his talk of dancing, carousing at subscription balls, and taking aboard strong drink? Is he no longer serving willingly, and might want out of the Navy?

Once back in England, and in Admiralty’s clutches, what fresh orders might await him, and where might they send him, this time? No more Independent Orders, no being seconded to the needs of Secret Branch, and Thomas Mountjoy’s whims or needs … no more returning to Gibraltar, and Maddalena Covilhā! Why, his new duties might be as bad as commanding that squadron of bloody gunboats, without the comfort of a fond and affectionate young woman!

And what’s that rot about “high-mindedness,” and getting the “Stink Eye” from the upright and high-minded Captain Chalmers? Has Respectability reared its ugly head, again, and when back in England, what social changes might Lewrie encounter. Will he be in the same bad odour as his father, Sir Hugo?

Hint-hint!

Fare-well, and adieu, to you, ladies of Spain,

For we’ve received orders to sail for Old England,

but we hope very shortly to see you, again!

Lewrie may be a cad, but he’s a useful cad. This time, though, he may have enough sense to stay aboard ship and not go haring ashore with the Army … maybe. You’ll simply have to wait and see.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEWEY LAMBDIN is the author of twenty previous Alan Lewrie novels. A member of the U.S. Naval Institute and a Friend of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, he spends his free time working and sailing. He makes his home in Nashville, Te

Also by Dewey Lambdin